Michael J. Skelly

Michael J. "Johnny Friendly" Skelly (1911-) was a International Longshoremen's Association union boss in Hoboken, New Jersey during the 1950s.

Biography
Michael J. Skelly was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1911, the son of a watchman of Irish descent, and he was one of ten children, being raised on his father's pension. When he was 16, he had to beg for work on the docks, and he turned to crime to work his way out of his dire situation. Skelly rose in the ranks of the International Longshoremen's Association due to his Mafia ties; the Genovese crime family ran the ILA unions on the waterfront. He soon became the local's president on the Hoboken docks, and, in 1954, the Waterfront Crime Commission began to investigate Skelly's corruption. He had Joey Doyle murdered to prevent him from testifying, and also had Timothy J. Dugan and Charley Malloy killed. However, Malloy's brother Terry Malloy ultimately testified against Skelly, leading to the Genovese family severing its ties to him, and to Skelly being indicted. Skelly then had Malloy unemployed, but, after a brawl between Skelly's thugs and dock workers sympathetic to Malloy, Skelly was pushed into the Hudson River, and his threats about revenge were ignored, as Skelly was now left with nothing.